Defiant Berlusconi Ready to Go to Prison

Former PM’s gambit

Defiant Berlusconi Ready to Go to Prison

Former PM’s gambit

ROME – No community service. No house arrest. “At this point, I’m off to jail. And then...” Outside the walls of Palazzo Grazioli, the mercury has risen past 35 °C. It is just after lunch yesterday [Monday] and Silvio Berlusconi has just met the People of Freedom (PDL) delegation on its way back from President Napolitano’s Quirinale Palace. The two Renatos, Schifani and Brunetta, having put Mr Berlusconi’s case to the president of Italy, return to find the former PM talking again explicitly about prison. He had mentioned it in the past when blowing off steam but this time things might be different. The subtext of his statement that he is ready to “serve the sentence in jail”, of which Daniela Santanché would provide a public version later on, is that this could be the opening move in a long game of chess with the Quirinale Palace and other politicians.

Doves, from Gianni Letta to the PDL’s ministers, insist that the only – faint – hope of clemency requires a first move on his part. Now, and for the first time, Mr Berlusconi appears to have made up his mind. The first step will be into San Vittore prison so he can set the pace from a new position. Otherwise, among other things, the Democratic Party (PD) would be hard pressed to explain to its supporters any vote in favour of a Berlusconi-saving measure, such as an amnesty or an amendment to one of the justice bills. But this is no ordinary game of chess and the gambit entails emotional sacrifice so Silvio Berlusconi has spoken not just to his party. No. It seems he has already discussed the prison option with all of his children, from eldest daughter Marina, whom the former PM continues to shield from pressure for her to take the political field, to youngest son Luigi. Nor should we forget his emotionally draining campaign to convince his partner, Francesca Pascale, who was so distraught on Sunday evening that she avoided meeting the ministers who came to dinner.

And the ministers who came for dinner after Sunday’s demonstration arrived with solemn faces. Among them was Angelino Alfano. The interior minister, Gianni Letta and Fedele Confalonieri had had to repel attacks from Denis Verdini, Daniela Santanché and others who had urged Mr Berlusconi to turn the Palazzo Grazioli demonstration into open warfare with the president and government of Italy.

Dinner itself was more frugal than the hitherto customary feasts of mozzarella and “pennette tricolore” pasta (the menu was stuffed tomatoes, mixed salad and stuffed aubergines), which did little to soothe the hardliners. And when Ms Santanché turned her attention to President Napolitano, claiming “he won’t give us a hand”, Fabrizio Cicchitto at once stepped in to calm the air. Mr Berlusconi summed up: “But I have spoken, and will continue to speak, responsibly”.

This was only the end of round one. Shortly afterwards, with the night still relatively young, Mr Berlusconi again toyed with the idea of flexing muscles. “At this point, I go on TV, I go back onto the streets, I speak to the country”. This time, Gianni Letta had to step in to restore calm and invite everyone “to be balanced”. Now, however, Mr Berlusconi associates this scenario with the jail option. According to his entourage, the former PM is also influenced by similarities in his current situation and that of the politicians who fell victim to Clean Hands. “I’m in the right, I’m not a criminal and I’m not a tax dodger” is the mantra Mr Berlusconi repeated again yesterday afternoon. But apparently the former PM’s version has a different ending. “Unlike other politicians who ended up in the magistrates’ sights, I can walk the street and see people applauding me. At me, people don’t...” This is the point at which the sentence breaks off, according to various witnesses. Perhaps so as not to evoke the coins tossed twenty years ago at Mr Berlusconi’s old friend Bettino Craxi. One way of saying that if he goes to jail, “it’s another story”.